Refugee & Asylum Policy

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Refugee & Asylum Policy

Tens of millions of people around the globe have been forcibly displaced by conflict, natural disaster, or persecution, seeking refuge either within or beyond the borders of their country. Humanitarian protection, whether for refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced persons (IDPs), represents a key policy area for many major immigrant-receiving countries as well as nations bordering locations where war, political upheaval, or natural disaster have disrupted daily life. The research offered here relates to the law and practice of protecting refugees and IDPs in areas of conflict as well as in industrialized nations, with a focus on secure solutions and effective institutional arrangements for comprehensive protection.

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Recent Activity

Although the number of refugees displaced from the conflict in Iraq was significantly fewer than expected, the war produced some 260,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the North. Recent reports indicate that despite the threat of inter-ethnic retaliatory violence, many of these IDPs are now returning home.

Recognizing the particular challenges to refugee protection faced on both sides of the Atlantic, this report questions whether strengthening resettlement programs in the U.S. and Europe can help to address ongoing concerns over security, the volume and diversity of migrants, the rise of right-wing parties and the role of the welfare state.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., EU officials issued a symbolic statement that the EU was prepared to receive Afghan refugees displaced from the looming American intervention. Despite internal policy tendencies to reject Afghan claims to protection and domestic security concerns, EU officials seemed to recognize at the time there was very little risk of a massive influx of Afghan refugees.

This report seeks to evaluate the extent to which expanding resettlement programs across the European Union can provide a strategic tool to manage a greater number of legal arrivals to EU Member States and whether Member States possess the political will to engage in resettlement.

This report seeks to understand the circumstances under which EU Member States are likely to engage in resettlement programs.The study promotes the development of a Common European International Protection System (CEIPS) as a means to incorporate resettlement, asylum and assistance in region of origin all under a single integrated agenda.

Amidst heightened security concerns in the post-9/11 world, this policy brief examines international responses to the Iraqi refugee situation and explores various tools that can effectively allow states to reconcile security efforts with the continued commitment to international protection.

This policy brief reviews what happened in the 1991 Gulf War and presents possible scenarios and factors affecting movements of refugees and internally displaced persons in Iraq. Focusing primarily on four potential scenarios, the author evaluates the relative likelihood of each scenario and implications each would have for refugees and IDPs.

This special issue of the Forced Migration Review (FMR) was produced in collaboration with MPI. FMR felt that the implications for refugees and IDPs of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the events which followed were so significant that they warranted changing our publishing schedule to accommodate this additional issue.